Your Right to Know

BEIRUT — Fighting raged around the suburbs of the Syrian capital yesterday, as rebels sought to
gain control of a ring of farming, residential and industrial communities that are a lifeline for
the government of President Bashar Assad.

In neighboring Turkey, the first of 400 U.S. troops arrived to operate Patriot missile batteries
intended to keep the violence from spilling over into the NATO country.

The Americans who arrived at Incirlik air base in Turkey will operate two Patriot batteries
being provided by the United States. Germany and the Netherlands are providing four more.

Also yesterday, anti-regime activists said a car bomb targeted an intelligence building in
Nabk, north of the capital. The blast came one day after a car bomb hit a gas station in the
capital itself, killing 11, activists said.

While no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, they could be guerrilla strikes by
rebel groups who lack the force to battle Assad’s troops in the capital. The ring of contested
Damascus suburbs, known as the ghouta, is home to wealthy Syrian landowners and many Sunnis who
flocked to the city from the countryside.

“The environs of Damascus are very important for control of the city,” said Andrew Tabler, a
Syrian expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Many are Sunni areas, intermixed
with Alawite communities that ring Damascus. It’s natural that the conflict would be in these
areas.”

Syria’s insurgents are mainly members of the Sunni community; Assad is a member of the Alawite
minority.

The rebels have used areas like the Western suburb of Moadamiyat, which came under attack
yesterday, to try to choke off government access to the main military airport in Damascus. “The
rebels want to liberate territory and deny the government logistical support,” Tabler said.

Yesterday, MiG jets struck both Moadamiyat and the southern suburb of Daraya, said an activist
in Damascus. The shelling left 17 dead in Daraya and 12 dead in Moadamiyat, she said. The
pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the attacks.